At a party this weekend some eyebrows were raised when I mentioned that I read several mom blogs. It didn’t help that I somehow felt the need to add that they were ‘mormon mom blogs’. They pretty layouts, the OOTDs, the adorable babies, picturesque family vacays and the endless fashion tips had me hooked from the start.

I think I first found one of these blogs when my sort-of sister in law was pregnant. I was searching for cute baby gifts (and shamelessly looking at every pudgy baby photo shoot imaginable on the internet) when I came across a blog post reviewing some of the hot new baby toys and accessories. It was well written but personable enough to make me feel like I was already getting to know the author. Well the getting-to-know-ya line was officially crossed when I read her multiple post ‘birthing story’. This mom had opted for an at home water birth and I was awe-struck that people, living in a big city, who didn’t appear to be of the tree-fort building granola eating nature*, would see this as a viable option for delivering their first child. This post spiraled into other birthing stories, eventually leading me to http://www.everybodybirths.com/. I now know way more about childbirth than I ever thought was possible.

Back to the mom-blogs. I’ve quietly been following several mom-blogs for about a year (most of them I found through that first one) and I really could not adequately put into words why I kept going back day after day (or even why I sometimes wondered how their cross-country move was going or if their new recipe was a success) until now…

This article “Why I Can’t Stop Reading Mormon Housewife Blogs” was published at the beginning of the year (although I’m just reading it now) and exposes the massive following of non-mormon, non-mom women that read these blogs. It’s a long article but pretty much hits then nail on the head for me: it’s been drilled into post-feminism era women that having a home life, a family, maintaining friendships and a job is a constant struggle for balance and that this balance always dangerously close to slipping away. It almost makes you dread moving on and creating a family for yourself, what with all the potential for failure and the constant hard work. These women make it seem that it is possible to hold onto friendships, have children AND bake cupcakes while maintaining a happy home life. As said best by the author, “If [these blogs] help women like me envision a life in which marriage and motherhood could potentially be something other than a miserable, soul-destroying trap, I say, “Right on.”

While my future life isn’t something that I worry about on a day-to-day basis, as people around me start becoming engaged and begin real-life jobs, a little bit of anxiety is lifted as these blogs make me realize that, yes, there can always be time for cupcakes in the world of grown-ups.

haha omg can i just say that i follow a blog of a pregnant morman woman! Although, in all fairness, i basically follow her because she has insanely cute outfit pics (she wasn’t pregnant when i first followed her). Only, you would understand this random following lol.http://www.thedaybookblog.com/ –> go to her early posts. she has such cute fall outfits!